After a busy and exciting week, with travelling, elections and getting caught up on our PVR'ed television shows, our house is gearing up for Halloween next week. By gearing up, I mean, of course, buying and eating little tiny chocolate bars.
One of the drawbacks of living at the end of a quiet road is that there is absolutely no reason to stay home and give out candy for the children who don't come to our house for Halloween. Instead, we're putting the kids in costumes that we found at garage sales last summer ($2 for an entire bag!) and heading over to my parents' house where the streets will be more alive with the walking dead than at our house.
I am hoping it is not as bitterly cold as it was last year and that maybe we end up going to more than four houses. However, four houses was enough Halloween fun for the kids and we got to warm up and enjoy our hot rum toddies more quickly. (The kids had marginally warm hot chocolate instead.)
I am looking forward to seeing all of the great photos of my friends' children on Facebook and anticipating my slight jealousy of my crafty Pinterest mom friends who put more effort in than I do for my children's costumes.
In my own defense, I'm lazy. Another reason I'm using garage sale costumes this year is that our kids are four and two-years old and don't know they can choose their own costume yet and I'm trying to keep it that way for as long as possible. They are just excited to dress up and beg for candy.
When I was in kindergarten, I was in a ballet class.That year, Judy Russell's Enchanement Dance Studio put on an amazing production of Alice in Wonderland and I also had a starring role as "flower" in Alice's magical garden. That show was fantastic and my costume was cute. As a "flower," I wore a petal skirt around my face that stood up like daisy petals and I was allowed to wear eye makeup. I'm sure that when my mom saw the costume she thought, "Ballet outfit and a Halloween costume! Done like dinner!" I was the most beautiful flower on Halloween until an older boy who went to my school snarkily called out to ask me, "What are you? A peacock?"
I was devastated because, clearly, I was a beautiful flower. I don't remember subsequent costumes as well as the flower costume and I hope my kids (when they start to care about what they're wearing) will enjoy the dressing up as much I used to.
Luckily, I love dressing up again and I am looking forward to my group costume with my friends at work. It really is a fun night and I wish you all a safe and happy Halloween. Also, remember to keep your pets inside because the fireworks and firecrackers will freak them out and you might lose them.
